50 Smartest Companies 2017

June 27, 2017

Each year we identify 50 companies creating new opportunities by combining important technologies and business savvy. Some are large companies that seem to be growing ever larger, like Amazon and Apple. Others, like IBM, or General Electric are old-guard giants betting on technology renewal. And the list is full of ambitious startups like SpaceX, which is changing the economics of space travel with reusable rockets; Face ++, a pioneer in face recognition technology; and additive-manufacturing firms Carbon and Desktop Metal. For additional perspective on the list, which starts below, please see our essay, "It Pays to Be Smart."

Smartest Hackers In The Room (Hint: They're Not Humans)

Will artificial intelligence revolutionize cybersecurity?

May 4, 2016

With criminal hackers becoming more effective at breaking into computer systems, cybersecurity researchers, government agencies, and academics are looking to artificial intelligence to detect – and fight – cyberattacks.

In The Future, We'll Leave Software Bug Hunting to the Machines

June 16, 2016

In the fictional cyberpunk card game Netrunner, there is Ice, and there is AI. Ice protects computer servers from attack, while the AI's job is to break in. For the most part, this happens on its own, pitting computer against computer. It is an autonomous, intelligent arms race—one that, in our world, does not, yet, exist.

Teaching a Computer to Hack... All by Itself

July 28, 2016

We've all heard of hacking contests where the participants are computer security experts. But a hacking contest where the participants are... computers? That's a new one, and in this episode, we hear from CMU-spinoff ForAllSecure who is heading to the national stage to compete against the nation's best autonomous hacking systems.

Security Bots Will Battle in Vegas for Darpa’s Hacking Crown

July 28, 2016

TIM BRYANT AND Brian Knudson spent two years preparing for the Cyber Grand Challenge, a $55 million hacking contest cooked up by Darpa, the visionary research operation inside the U.S. Defense Department. But when the contest begins next Thursday evening in a ballroom at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Darpa won’t let them participate.